Fear of Being too Happy: The Charlie Brown Syndrome

Have you ever felt that something bad might happen when you are way too happy, just like Charlie Brown’s character?

I am usually the optimist type but for some odd reasons, this obscure feeling suddenly occurred to me tonight. In deep silence, I prayed for strength to conquer this negativity.

I am not sure where this mindset came from but I remember counseling some friends from the past who experienced the same fear. In retrospect, several factors come into play:

(1) The way we were molded as children ~ like there is always a consequence for every action.My grandma (RIP) used to tell me that if I don’t attend mass, God will take away my smarts. If I don’t receive the sacrament of communion, God won’t forgive my sins. If I don’t do this, yadada obladi oblada! Rules to live by which I detested growing up.

(2) Perfectionism. If you are inherently Ms. Perfection, you think that making a mistake will crumble your world. Hence, you are always on guard.

(3) Misery loves company. If you have been subjected to numerous hardships in your life and suddenly you were rewarded with something positive, you feel that you don’t deserve it.

(4) Victory-Defeat Cycle. Just when you thought you built a close to perfect life, then suddenly everything fell apart before your eyes. And now that you are back in the ballgame, you are afraid that the same bad luck will happen again.

If you are one of the above and you have had this nagging feeling, I’d like to share with you these positive thoughts:

~ Believe that good things do happen to good people.

~ Focus on the present and let go of your ugly past. Your past is not the sole basis of your future.

~ Life will never be perfect but we can always make it better.

~ Happiness is a choice, and so is loneliness.

~ You can’t control the situations around you but you can manage your reaction.

~ You only live once, an hour dwelling on negative thoughts could’ve been spent on something productive and happy.

…Finally, say a prayer and thank our Creator for blessing us this happiness because you and I deserve it!

@aimee Thanks much for reading my post. Writing/blogging is also a therapy for me and I'm happy to be able to relate to you. Now I call Charlie Brown a happy problem~ problems happy people make. Have a wonderful and worry-free day.xoxo